400 PROF. NOTIDENSKIOLD, EXPEDITION TO GREENLAND. 



The walk to it was richly rewarded by an uncommonly exten- 

 sive view, wiiich showed us that the inhand ice continued to 

 rise towards the interior, so that the horizon towards the east, 

 north, and south was terminated by an ice-border almost as smooth 

 as that of the ocean. A journey further (even if one were in a 

 condition to employ weeks for the purpose — which want of time 

 and provisions rendered impossible to us) could therefore evi- 

 dently furnish no other information concerning the nature of the 

 ice than that which we had already obtained ; and even if want 

 of provisions had not obliged us to return, we should hardly have 

 considered it wortli while to add a few days' marches to our 

 journey. Our turning-point was at a height of 2,200 feet above 

 the level of the sea, and about 83' of longitude, or 30 miles west 

 of the extremity of the northern arm of Auleitsivikfjord. 



On departing from the spot where we had left our provisions 

 and sleeping sack, we had, as we supposed, taken careful notice 

 of its situation ; nevertheless, we were nearly obliged to abandon 

 our search as vain — an example which shows how extremely 

 difficult it is, without lofty signals, to find objects again on a 

 slightly undulating surface everywhere similar, like that formed 

 by the inland ice. When, after anxiously searching in every direc- 

 tion, we at length found our resting place, we ate our dinner with 

 an excellent appetite, made some further reductions in our load, 

 and then set off with all haste back to the boat, which we reached 

 late in the evening of the 25th. ^ 



At a short distance from our turning-point, we came to a 

 copious, deep, and broad river, flowing rapidly between its blue 

 banks of ice, which were here not discoloured by any gravel, and 

 which could not be crossed without a bridge. As it cut off our 

 return, we were at first somewhat disconcerted; but we soon 

 concluded that — as in our journey out we had not passed any 

 stream of such large dimensions — it must at no great distance 

 disappear under the ice. We therefore proceeded along its bank 

 in the direction of the current, and before long a distant roar 

 indicated that our conjecture was right. The whole immense 

 mass of water here rushed down a perpendicular cleft into the 

 depths below. We observed another smaller, but nevertheless 

 very remarkable, waterfall the next day, while examining, after 

 our mid-day rest, the neighbourhood around us with the telescope. 

 We saw in fact a pillar of steam rising from the ice at some dis- 

 tance from our resting-place, and, as the spot was not far out of 

 our way, we steered our course by it, in the hope of meeting — 

 judging from the height of the misty pillar — a waterfall still 

 greater than that just described. We were mistaken : only a smaller, 

 though nevertheless tolerably copious, river rushed down from the 

 azure-blue cliffs to a depth from which no splashes rebounded to 

 the mouth of the fall ; but there arose instead, from another smaller 

 hole in the ice, in the immediate vicinity, an intermittent jet of 

 water, mixed with air, which carried hither and thither by the 

 wind, wetted the surrounding ice-cliffs with its spray. We had 

 then here, in the midst of the desert of inland ice, a fountain, as 



